


My Pet Basilisk

by blueryan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Drummer Albus, F/M, Guitarist Scorpius, M/M, Popular Rose, Punk Scorpius
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-08-07 18:51:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7725853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueryan/pseuds/blueryan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Music gives everyone something to connect to, whether you like rock or classical, anyone can feel something for some sort of music. Albus Potter had never been blessed with that connection until Scorpius Malfoy came into his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How Albus Befriended the Emo Kid

When Albus Severus Potter was a kid, his dad would play The Beatles on his way to drop the kids off at daycare. Albus remembers the relaxed smile that would grace his father's face the moment that "Here Comes The Sun" would start pouring out of the speakers, no matter how bad the bass always was. His dad worked a high stress job, being the local Sheriff wasn't an easy task all of the time, and he remembered how rare it was to catch Harry letting his usually tense body slouch. Music would always do that for his father, and he was grateful.

Albus remembers sitting in the kitchen with his mom as she frustratingly tried to recreate one of his grandmother's dishes from her childhood. Cooking was not a chore that Ginny enjoyed, but Albus fondly remembers her throwing the recipe book down before cranking up the stereo. While The Beatles had calmed Harry, Ginny was always more of more of a fan of The Sex Pistols and The Ramones.

Suddenly stressfully chopping tomatoes and mixing ingredients turned into a sort of dance for Ginny and Albus. Ginny wouldn't care about the mess they were making as Albus dunked his hands into the mixing bowl and sloshed everything around to the beat of the music. Ginny would let her hair down and she would dance like she used to when she was young and used to attend the punk concerts of her time.

Music had always had a place in the Potter household, and when they weren't listening to their parent's old favorites, they were working on learning how to play instruments of their own choosing.

Ginny had been a bass player when she was younger, and Harry had always been upset that his Aunt and Uncle had never let him learn to play anything as a child. So when the Albus and his siblings were old enough to read sheet music and hold an instrument, Harry and Ginny were very adamant that they all take something up.

James Sirius Potter II, the oldest of the bunch, had always been drawn to the thrumming vibrations of rock music. So he of course chose to play the electric guitar. When they were young, James swore up and down that he'd be in band that made it big one day.

Lily Luna, the wee littlest of them all size and age wise, had always been a mama's girl. While Lily took after Harry and was more into the softer sounding music such as John Denver and Radiohead, she wanted more than anything to be like Ginny. So when the time came and they took her to buy her first instrument, it was no surprise that Lily ran straight to the bass section in their local music store. Lily was never as into performing as James and Albus were.

And Albus, the middle and often times overlooked child, was not a lot like any of his family. He liked all the music that he was raised on, and although the connection he had with his parent's favorites was strong, he just didn't feel the same excitement for them as he did for the rising alternative scene.

"Daddy, why do you cry when this song comes on?" A very small Albus remembers asking Harry one afternoon after being picked up from daycare. Lily was too small at the time to leave Ginny's side, and James was at a friend's house for the day, so it was just Albus and his father.

"Something" by The Beatles was playing lowly in the background, and Harry's green eyes were shiny with tears.

"Does this song make you sad, Daddy?" Asked Albus in concern when Harry didn't respond. 

After a minute had ticked by slowly, Harry spoke in a quiet tone. "When I was a child I did not have anyone in my life to connect with, Albus. I suppose..." Harry paused and took a breath. "I suppose it was when I heard this song that I found it possible to feel so close to anything, it wasn't a person, but it was something that I thoroughly loved and that would always be there for me."

Having stored that moment with his father in a very careful place in his memories, Albus always knew that he had never felt that kind of connection with any song. He didn't know what instrument he wanted to play from the get go like his siblings did.

So when his parents took him to the music store, he was overwhelmed by the amount of different instruments laid out in neat rows before him.

He didn't want to play electric, because James already had a claim on that instrument, and he didn't want to be like his mother and play the bass. Albus only knew one thing for certain, and that was that he wanted to make music. He just didn't know what kind yet.

So, he picked the one thing he knew almost any genre of music could be played on.

Harry and Ginny were greatly surprised when their very reserved and quiet son gravitated towards the drums. They had always figured he would be drawn to the acoustic, or maybe a ukulele, something that played softer tones such as those that Albus spoke in.

They did not question their son on his choice, because they respected all of their children enough to let them choose their own path in life. 

Over the years as the kids grew up, James and Lily got lazy. They felt they had learned everything that there was to know about playing their respective instruments, and so they lost interest in practicing everyday by the time that they were teenagers.

Albus, on the other hand, never had given up on the drums. Ginny was always amused when she had to fetch him from the basement where he practiced to remind him to eat or to sleep, because without guidance she knew that Albus would continue to play through the entire night.

His hands would blister from playing so constantly, and sometimes his hearing went a little wonky after being cooped up in the sound proofed basement with the loud vibrations of his drums trapped in for so long, but these things never deterred him.

Even though he devoted almost all of his time and energy towards playing the drums, Albus still did not have a clue what kind of music he really wanted to play. 

By the time he was 14 and entering high school, he had received 2 invitations from his peers to join bands that he knew were a lot less serious about music than he was. 

One offer had come from his cousin Rose Weasley. She had said that she wanted to play something like Vampire Weekend, something soft and a bit poppy, but with a flare of something different. Although this offer intrigued Albus, he had to politely decline because after giving Vampire Weekend a good listening, he could not imagine himself feeling happy playing that type of music.

The other offer, one even less serious than Rose's, came from a slightly intoxicated James Potter. He had stumbled into Albus's room late one weekend night, a night that Albus knew James had told Ginny and Harry that he was going to sleep over at a friend's place. 

James had shaken Albus awake, and with slightly slurred speech he had propositioned Albus to be his drummer. "I know that you're just a stupid little kid, but h-hey-" he hiccuped, "when you're older we're gonna rock the world together, and you won't have to drum for Rose's indie crap band." And with that, he pushed himself out of his younger brother's room, and stumbled back to his own. Luckily, he had not woken their parents that night.

For awhile there, Albus almost cracked and agreed to join either James or Rose's bands, but then he had a revelation.

It was like a smack in the face when it happened. He had been sitting on the bleachers during gym class, having "forgotten" his gym clothes for the 5th time that month, when a boy with platinum blond hair and completely black clothing plopped down right beside him.

The odd thing about the situation was that the boy did not say a word to him, just sat there in close proximity of Albus and listened to music in his headphones.

After a few awkward minutes of silence, Albus tapped on the other boy's shoulder. The boy raised an eyebrow as he yanked the earbuds out and stared into Albus's eyes.

"Yes?" The boy asked in a coolly apathetic tone. 

Albus gulped, he did not know how to handle conversations with strangers, especially attractive ones with piercings and a give-no-shit attitude. 

"Hey," he scratched his cheek awkwardly, "sorry, just, I don't really know you but you sat by me? And I'm not like, calling you out or anything because I'm not mad at all, I'm just really... Confused? I mean, I've never seen you and there's a lot of open seats and-" he breaks off when he notices the boy's amused smirk.

"I'm Scorpius, pleased to meet you." He extended his hand, and after an unsure moment, Albus shook it.

"Good to meet you too man, I'm Albus.. Not to be rude or anything, but why did you sit by me?" Albus tried asking again.

Scorpius was still smirking. "Because I don't want to look like a total new kid loser with no friends. And you seemed like a nice guy who wouldn't mind some company."

"Oh," Albus let out a breath, "that's a relief. I thought it was some kind of joke.. I'm kind of a loser, and not because I'm a new kid, just because I suck."

"Well, for what it's worth, I don't think you suck Albus." Scorpius offered him one of his earbuds. "Wanna tune in?"

When Albus accepted the earbud his world was forever changed, because this weird new goth kid had some damn fine taste in music. Albus didn't know what it was at the time, but later when he got home, he through himself into researching what this magnificent sound that he had heard was.

The first thing that he had ever felt that connection with that his father had explained years before was a band called Mindless Self Indulgence. It was a band that made music that ranged from mildly offensive rock, to extremely offensive techno rock.

That's wear his roots started. 

He didn't talk to the weird kid he had met in gym class for awhile after their meeting, but he was grateful for the introduction to some of the best music he had ever heard.

From Mindless Self Indulgence he branched off into My Chemical Romance, and from there he found Panic! At the Disco. The further he went the more he liked the music. 

Finally, after skipping from band to band, he found some bands he could not get enough of. He would memorize one song, learn to play its drum part, and move on to the next. 

In the end, his favorite bands were The Killers and La Dispute, both existing in the modern day's alternative rock category.

It took him a few weeks, but he knew what he wanted to do. 

He didn't share any classes with Scorpius, but it couldn't be that hard to track down the new boy. After all, he did have a fairly noticeable look, and he was quite attractive, so he was sure his cousin Rose Weasley would know just how to locate him. She was quite the popular girl, and she made it her business to know who was who.

When he finally worked up the courage to approach her about it, she laughed in his face. "Why do you want to know where that weird emo kid is? Yeah, I've talked to him, and although he was nice he is very much below our level, Albus. We're the children of some very important people, we can befriend anyone. The best of the best, you do not need him."

It was always the same thing with that girl, and it frustrated the hell out of Albus. He loved his cousin, and he knew that she was a good person and all, but she was all about climbing the social ladder and making connections that would launch her future career.

Without her help, he had managed to talk to a few people who knew around where Scorpius's locker was. After about a week of gathering information from people, he had figured out that Scorpius knew how to stay hidden. Albus was much the same, he supposed.

Eventually Albus found out the boy's exact locker number. Locker number 1064 on the second floor of the school, located right by the zoology classroom, ensuring that there was always a gross stink of dead animals that the students dissected.

Albus only had to wait 10 minutes after the bell rung for Scorpius to show up at the locker. The crowds were mostly gone, having all rushed out the front doors of the school at the first chance they got.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow when he saw the green eyed boy sitting against his locker, and his combat boots came to a stop right in front of Albus.

"Not that I don't appreciate a good conversation, but I'm running a tad late, so let's make this quick." Albus scrambled out of the way so Scorpius could quickly enter his code and toss his books in.

As Scorpius organized his items, Albus took it as his chance to talk. "So that band you played the other day..."

"Mindless Self Indulgence?"

"Yes, that's the one! Well, anyways, I was getting to listening to them.. And I'm really into a lot of similar things to them. I was just wondering-" Scorpius slammed his locker shut and began walking away, motioning at Albus to follow.

"Wondering?" Scorpius prompted Albus who had stopped chattering.

"Oh!  Yes, well.." Albus stopped for a moment again. "Do you play any instruments?" He blurted.

This seemed to catch Scorpius's attention. "I do, in fact, play an instrument. I play three."

"Really?" Asked a very excited Albus. "What instruments?"

"Violin, piano, and a bit of guitar." Scorpius began heading down the stairs, Albus continued to follow him.

"That's perfect!"  

"Why?" Scorpius asked, a platinum brow raised in inquiry.

"Because! I know you like the same kind of music as me now, and I really really want to start up a band. You know, something like La Dispute lyrically, but more like Mindless Self Indulgence with the bass, and maybe a bit like the weird indie vibe The Killers have going on-"

"Cool. I'm in" 

"-and you just gotta trust me it'll be-" Albus froze. "Wait, you're in?"

"You heard me." Scorpius stopped walking as they reached the front doors of the school. He turned to look into Albus's eyes. "I'm in. Do you need my number or did your cousin give that to you?" 

"What- I mean- Please, yes, I need your number!" Albus blushed. 

"Excellent." Scorpius pulled out a pen from his army style jacket's pocket and grabbed Albus's arm without permission. He wrote his number in small neat hand writing down Albus's wrist. "I expect you to text me tonight."

"Wait, wait!" Albus called and Scorpius moved to leave the school. "Did you say that Rose has your number? Why does Rose have your number?"

"Oh," Scorpius smiled a little sheepishly, "I thought she was a bit cute when I met her. She's a little rude to me though... And anyways, you're cuter. Bye Albus." 

Albus blushed, and was thankful that Scorpius had rushed out the front doors at that moment and didn't stick around to see how flustered Albus was.


	2. Introducing Player Three

Over multiple cups of coffee and many sleep deprived weekends, Albus and Scorpius began to write their first songs. 

They went from strangers, to friends, to inseparable partners in crime in the matter of weeks. 

While Albus had never had many friends and probably would always remain a bit of an enigma in his nature, he found himself growing closer to Scorpius than he had ever been to anyone except for Rose. Despite his lack of conversation skills and the awkward silences that occurred quite often because of it, Scorpius became his friend.

They didn't yet have a bassist or any backup guitar players, heck, they didn't even have a lead singer! But for two Freshman boys, they were still making an unexpected amount of progress in song writing. Albus was amazing at figuring out the drum parts of songs because of his years of freestyle practicing on them, and Scorpius had the guitar chords all covered. Their lyrics weren't exactly flawless, but they were getting there... Somewhat.

It was a Friday night when the frustration grew too much for Albus to handle.

"I can't do this anymore." Whined Albus, dropping his pencil stubbornly down on Scorpius's head from his perch on the bed. "I'm not a lyricist, and neither are you. We need to get someone in here who actually knows how the rhythm of this all works."

"Hey now, speak for yourself mate. I think my lyrics are pretty good." Scorpius ignores the pencil that hit his head, used to Albus's little ticks by now.

"Oh yeah, you're really great at them." Said Albus sarcastically.

"You left me here to grieve  
With a failing torch  
And no ability to breath.." Albus wails dramatically, clutching at his heart dramatically and accidentally rolling off the bed with a thud.

Scorpius rolls his eyes and pushes Albus's feet away from where they had landed dangerously close to his face. "Fuck off Albus, at least I can do some rhyming."

Albus bounces back onto his feet and flops back onto the bed with a loud sigh. "Yeah, but with lyrics that angsty we're just going to be some teenage emo angst band. I want to do something more than that Scorp.."

"I know... And I want to do something great too, just, back off the insults. I'm trying to accomplish something with what limited abilities we have."

"And I totally appreciate that!" Albus rushes, seeing Scorpius's cheeks turn red with hurt and anger. "But... Mate, honestly, if we're going to be anything more than some crappy teen band that maybe plays one gig at the talent show every year, then we're going to need someone to help us. Face it. We suck at this whole poetry business."

Scorpius sighs, running his fingers through platinum hair. "You're.. Of course you're right... But who? You've already expressed your.. Hesitancy to allow any of your relatives into our band, and I wouldn't even know where to begin looking outside of that circle of people. Face it Al, your family is huge and rules this town."

Scoffing, Albus hangs off the edge of the bed upside down, making eye contact with an upright and agitated looking Scorpius. "Puh-lease, we live in a metropolitan area for Merlin's sake! There's more than just the Potters and Weasleys! It shouldn't be that hard to find someone who can write music and sing. There's thousands of singer songwriters out there waiting for their big break!"

"That may be true, but it's not like we have a huge network of people to scour through..." Scorpius mutters, decidedly not staring at Albus's lips and definitely not thinking about how easy it would be to just lean forward and pull the classic Spiderman move...

Scorpius gulps, turning his attention back down towards the lined notebook in his lap.

Albus, who hadn't taken notice of his friend's display of internal struggle, moved himself back up into a sitting position and tapped his finger against his lips thoughtfully.

James was certainly not an option, as he was simply too self involved to care about a band. Besides, Albus didn't much like his brother as company.

Lily was extremely unpracticed and immature, but that could be forgiven because of her age. However, it did not make her a candidate for the band.

Rose wasn't even into their genre of music, and she would never deign to lower herself to the level of being in punk outcast Scorpius Malfoy's band.

Albus's cousin Teddy would've been an ideal option, but he was away at college and a little old to hang around freshmen.

Albus scrunched up his nose, thinking harder.

Wait...

There was someone he knew of who had a keen interest in both music theory and poetry. 

"Scorp!" Shrieked Albus, bouncing onto his hands and knees and staring wide eyed at his friend. "I think I know someone!"

"Merlin's beard, Albus!" Scorpius exclaimed, hand against his chest and mouth gaping in surprise. "You didn't have to give me a bloody heart attack!"

Albus tried to not think about how adorable Scorpius was when he looked like an offended old British woman whose petunias had just been pissed on. 

"But Scorp! I had to! Because I've got it! I know someone!" Scorpius looked unimpressed.

"Now don't give me that look, Scorpy-poo!" Somehow, Scorpius's frown had deepened further.

"Fine," Albus relented, "I apologize for making you piss your granny knickers. Happy?"

Scorpius looked only mildly sated by the weak apology, but Albus took it as a win in his favor.

"Okay, so I don't think you know this person, but hear me out..."

-

 

Scorpius, to say the least, was not enthused by the person Albus had ushered into the basement of the Potter household (the unofficial meeting place of their unofficial and unnamed band). 

Now, Scorpius wasn't usually much of a judger, how could he be with the way he usually dressed? But he simply could not fathom how Albus had thought this person would be a good fit for their band. The candidate was clad in a neon yellow jumper that was garishly paired with tight black skinny jeans and white converse with tiny lilacs doodled onto the sides.

"And you are?" Asked Scorpius, a well groomed blonde eyebrow arched across his forehead.

"Not one to be intimidated by boys who wear too much eyeliner and think My Chemical Romance is God's gift to the Earth." Said the petite asian boy who stood at the bottom of the stairs with his hips cocked. "And please, do refrain from the scathing glares."

Albus awkwardly pushed himself around the boy who was blocking the end of the staircase. "Now, now, Cedric! Scorpius is kind of just a prick to everyone by nature, he didn't mean to come off that way."

Albus shoots Scorpius a quick glare, causing the blonde boy to shrug back in annoyance.

"I was going to introduce you two nicely, but I should've known two sarcastic arses would be hard to bring together." Muttered Albus as Scorpius continued to glare at the newcomer.

"Well, I personally don't enjoy being interacted with so rudely as a first impression." It would've been a lot more of a convincing spiteful remark if Cedric hadn't been nervously tugging at the sleeves of his oversized jumper while he said it.

Albus was astonished that Scorpius had already managed to get off on the wrong foot with one of Albus's childhood friends.

Cedric wasn't usually terribly rude either, so it was strange to see him acting so negatively towards Scorp. Albus filed a mental note to ask Cedric about it later, because Cedric was only ever awful to people who he was positive deserved it.

"And I'm sure Scorpius is very sorry," Albus shot a glare at his bandmate, "But we should really just forgive and move on, as we did have quite the proposal for you."

"Uh-huh." Scorpius forced out at Albus's prompting stare.

"And it would be a bloody shame if it were all ruined because of a misleading first encounter!" 

Cedric did not look convinced.

"And... We have crisps and junk food and stuff." 

The smirk that graced Cedric's face was how Albus knew he had spoken wisely.

"So please stay?"

"Sure, why not?" Cedric shrugged and shuffled over to a wrecked old couch Albus's father had moved down here after their cat, Hedwig, peed on it one two many times for it to be considered decent for the guests to use. "I do enjoy free food, and make it a rule to never turn it down."

"A reasonable rule to have for oneself." Scorpius remarked. 

"Good! Yes!" Albus was practically grinning from ear to ear. "So Scorp, this is my old friend Cedric Cheng-Williams. We go way back. And Ced, this is my bandmate Scorpius Malfoy. We... Go back a few weeks or so."

Cedric does not appear to care. "Yes, I know who he is. Rose has mentioned him at lunchtime gossip sessions. But to be entirely honest with you Albus Potter, I don't much care. So shoot, give me your proposal."

It was strange that Albus had somehow forgotten that his childhood friend had moved on from Albus's loser self, only to befriend his popular future Class President cousin.

Albus sighed in relief, glad all was not lost. "Okay, so I know that back in 6th grade you wrote that really stellar poem that won that one award-"

"Yes, yes, flattery. A good way to win me over."

Albus acted as if he had never been cut off. "-and Scorp and I here are really.. really bad at that whole rhyme structure and poetic shit. Like. I mean really bad. Really bad."

"Speak for yourself, mate." Grumbled Scorpius, only to be ignored.

"But we really want to start a band. Like, really bad. And we don't just wanna do covers, because that's not really how you go places, you know? We want to be producing our own original content that we can be proud of and like... Actually love? And although Scorp and I can generally handle the sheet music and tabs and all the technical stuff, neither of us were really gifted with what you're good at, and that's poetry. We also are pretty desperate for a lead singer, and you've been in honors choir for basically your entire life. And dude, I've read your written stuff. What gets published in the school newspaper is always so good, and I figured since we used to be friends back when we were like 5-"

"You figured because we played wizards on the playground once as children, that I would be open to the idea of writing music for your band? Which you've told me exactly zero information about in that babble rant, by the way." Cedric was unimpressed, and was currently scanning his hot pink painted nails. 

"Hey, I let you be the hero who saved the wizarding world sooo you kind of still owe me for that..." 

"Uh-huh, sure." Cedric was not having any of Albus and Scorpius's bullshit. "How about you two give me a genuine pitch about just what it is you guys do and what you hope to accomplish, otherwise I'm out. I have better things to be doing."

Honestly, Scorpius was impressed that Cedric was still hanging around after both Albus's psycho babble and Scorpius's own rudeness.

"Al, I can handle this." Scorpius stopped Albus before the poor boy could embarrass himself further by going into another rant about nothing and everything. 

Scorpius moved to stand beside Albus, making steady and confident eye contact with Cedric. "Alright, so I get that you don't care about the details or any of our origin story or even us for that matter, so I'll give it to you plain and simple. Al and I, well, we're two social rejects who want to make punk music that actually means something and isn't just some angsty hogwash for preteens to use as their facebook status updates. I don't know you at all besides the fact that you apparently enjoy looking like a walking traffic cone,  and I certainly don't know what music you like, though I am receiving strong Brittney Spears vibes, but we're pretty set on what we want to make. We just need someone who is capable and eager to join that image."

For a few seconds Cedric doesn't say anything, staring calculatingly at the pair of boys in front of him. He observed everything from their clothes, to the nervous bouncing that Albus was struggling to contain, to the way Scorpius tried to play it off as if he didn't care when he so clearly did, and  to how utterly desperate they both looked.

"Well boys." Cedric stood from the ratty couch; Albus sent out a silent prayer that it wasn't still covered in cat piss. "It looks like you just scored yourself a new band member. Congrats, I'm kind of a big deal."


End file.
